State Department spokeswoman accuses AP’s Lee of "buying into Russian propaganda" (video RT)

State Department spokesperson Marie Harf expressed her annoyance over the “tone” of AP reporter Matthew Lee’s question about the creation of the NATO rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe and accused him of “buying into the Russian propaganda”.
The back-and-forth between the Associated Press’s veteran journalist and Harf created sparks during Friday’s press briefing.
Lee asked the State Department’s spokeswoman if NATO’s latest decision to set up a rapid reaction force in Eastern Europe was related to events in Ukraine.
“And you don’t see that as in any way provocative?” he said.
“No, we don’t,” was Harf’s response.

The spokeswoman said the deployment of the spearhead force – approved by NATO members during a summit in Wales – comes in response to Russia’s “escalatory actions” in Ukraine and is “a defensive measure.”

“It’s a high readiness joint task force able to deploy within a few days to challenges that arise. It will contribute to ensuring that NATO remains responsive to its alliance, capable of meeting its current challenges. Again, this is in response to escalatory action the Russians have taken. It’s a little disingenuous to say something that NATO is doing in response to Russia’s action is somehow escalatory, that NATO should just sit by while Russia sends arms, sends men, sends troops into Ukraine and say, “Oh, we’re not going to respond,” she said. 

Lee noted that Ukraine is not a member of the North-Atlantic military bloc and asked if Russia had taken any “escalatory measures” against NATO members. 

“So you’re setting up a rapid reaction force in response to something that you say is happening in a country…that isn’t a NATO member?” the journalist asked. 

Harf argued that Ukraine “is very close to NATO.”
“NATO is committed to a Europe free, whole, and at peace, and obviously there are threats to that right now with Russia’s actions,” she stated, adding that she was not sure what the journalist could not understand about that.
Lee tried to explain his point, but Harf interrupting him insisting that everything the alliance did “since Russia’s intervention into Ukraine” was a defensive measure “to be able to protect NATO and our members, and also working together to help countries like Ukraine.” She added that it was not designed to confront anyone.
“I just don’t understand logically how you can look at something NATO is doing to protect our countries and compare it in any way to Russia sending surface-to-air missile systems across the border into Ukraine, which are by definition an offensive weapon,” she said.
The State Department’s spokeswoman then said that “the tone of the question” suggested that the journalist was “buying into the Russian propaganda” for equating those “categorically different things.”
“And I’m not buying into any – anyone’s propaganda, and I think that’s the whole point,” Lee hit back. “You guys object to other countries’ objections about your military exercises all the time, and you think that they're perfectly legitimate.” 

It was not the first time that Lee has got into a heated exchange, posing unpleasant questions at press briefings with State Department representatives over the Ukraine crisis.
Earlier in July, Harf stated that Russia was firing artillery across the border into Ukrainian territory. However, when Lee asked for the evidence behind the allegations other than “just ‘because I said so’,” the spokesperson refused, saying only that they were based on “some intelligence information.”
http://rt.com/usa/185632-lee-ap-propaganda-harf/
6/9/14
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Related:

• Comment by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the NATO summit in Wales (MFA of RF)

  • NATO allies put together new rapid reaction force . "Creation of 10,000-Strong Force". (Report)

    • U.S. State Department accuses Russia of firing artillery into Ukraine, refuses to provide any evidence (VIDEO RT)

• Ukraine’s Poroshenko Gets Show of Support from NATO Leaders (VOA News)

• "Las sesiones informativas de Psaki y Harf se han convertido en folclore"

Las tradicionales sesiones informativas del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU. nunca sirven para aportar pruebas y se han convertido en algo folclórico, subrayan desde el Ministerio de Exteriores de Rusia.

La vicedirectora del Departamento de Información y Prensa del Ministerio de Exteriores de Rusia, María Zajárova, respondió a una periodista de la cadena Rossía 24 que preguntó por qué las portavoces del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU., Jennifer Psaki y Marie Harf, "parecen un proyecto viral".

Zajárova explicó que "casi nada de lo que ellas dicen se basa en hechos". Recordó que el Ministerio de Exteriores de Rusia presenta citas, apellidos, enlaces, extractos de documentos y cifras para argumentar su posición. Por lo contrario, "no es un secreto para nadie, incluso la gente del pueblo lo sabe: cualquier declaración que se hace en las sesiones informativas [del Departamento de Estado de EE.UU], en particular sobre Rusia y sobre la situación en torno a Ucrania, es absolutamente infundada". "Cualquier pregunta aclaratoria carece de respuesta", subrayó............................http://www.ellanodikhs.net/2014/08/us-department-of-state-ignores-all.html

20/8/14

• Video RT:State Dept's Harf accuses AP's Matt Lee of 'buying into Russian propaganda'